Key Suspect in Brutal Dallas Shooting Murder Met the Victims on Grindr and was Involved in 3-Way Gay Tryst

Jesse Pawlowski, 20, one of three men charged with the brutal shooting murder of 18-year-old John Clinton, his 39-year-old mother, Ami Hickey, Jeff Gerla, 47, and Amanda Bain, 39, in East Texas Monday, met Clinton and Gerla on the gay dating app Grindr and had been in a 3-way tryst at the time of the murder.

According to ABC25 Dallas: Three men charged in the fatal shooting of four people at a home in East Texas this week met up with one of the victims under the pretense of buying a gun from him but planned to steal it, authorities allege.

Jesse Pawlowski, 20, Billy Phillips, 37, and Dylan Welch, 21, have been charged with capital murder in killings near New Summerfield, a small community about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Dallas.

Photo above: (via Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office via AP) This combo of undated photos provided by the Cherokee County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office shows, from left, Dylan Welch, Jesse Pawlowski and Billy Phillips. The three men, charged in the fatal shootings of four people in East Texas this week, met up with one of the victims under the pretense of buying a gun from him, but planned to steal it, according to a court document. All three have been charged with capital murder in killings near New Summerfield, Texas.

A Texas Ranger said in court filings that 18-year-old John Clinton thought he was selling a gun Monday night but was shot and killed in the driveway. His 39-year-old mother, Ami Hickey, Jeff Gerla, 47, and Amanda Bain, 39, were all found shot to death in Gerla’s mobile home on the property. Cherokee County Sheriff Brent Dickson has said Clinton and Gerla were in a relationship, as were Hickey and Bain.

Pawlowski told investigators that he met Clinton and Gerla on the the dating app Grindr and entered into a sexual relationship with them, the Ranger, Nicholas Castle, said in affidavits. Pawlowski said he had visited Gerla’s home several times and knew that the couple had multiple firearms, including a handgun Clinton wanted to sell for $500, he wrote.

Instead Pawlowski said that when Phillips and Welch arrived, he and Clinton walked to the end of the driveway to meet them, Castle wrote. Pawlowski told investigators that Phillips took Clinton’s handgun, shot Clinton in the back of the head and then shot the other three in the mobile home. Phillips and Welch told investigators that they had no involvement in the killings.